I follow UNI nearly as much as ISU. Sorry, I really don't find their style or pace boring or ugly. Not nearly as much fun as a Cyclone run, but nothing wrong with it, just different. They'll never have the athletes to play fast, but they're good and well-coached (obvious). Pickford has a lot of the attention, along with Koch and Carlson, but guard play will be really important (ISU advantage). The way McCloud plays will be critical for UNI.
DEFENSE:
Yeah, one thing I've found interesting - and I've been chastised saying it here at CF for it - is that the VAST majority of viewers do not understand what is happening on defense.
1. Two times this season during UNI games I've heard one announcer ask the other announcer to explain what it is that UNI is doing on defense. Both times, the other announcer immediately changed the subject. He had either had no idea what was happening, or no interest in explaining it.
In football, fans and commentators like defense. At the end of a 7-3 victory, people say, "Well, that was a defensive battle!"
But in Basketball, if UNI-ISU is 25-20 at halftime, people will say, "What a snooze-fest!"
2. Opponents after a loss to UNI rarely say, "They just played great defense." Instead, they say, "We lost that game. We played badly. They didn't beat us. We beat ourselves." (They say that every time and I think it's because they don't understand what just happened.)
I think the difference is that few people understand what is happening on the defensive end in basketball.
If ISU is forced by UNI to shoot a lot of 3's and they hit on their season average of .374 they would be scoring over 1.1 points per possession which in a low scoring affair is probably a good chance for victory....
If ISU has a ppp of 1.1, ISU will probably win. But I don't think that will happen.
Welcome to CF. To get this back on track how much better is McCloud this year compared to last? Night and day
It's weird how much better he is. Last year, he couldn't hit a 3 and nearly always got blocked when driving to the hoop. He was fast. He could beat his guy, but then couldn't score. In PrimeTimeLeague he was scoring like 40-something points per game. And he's doing really well in games so far.
He's a recruit Coach Jake was really excited about, so his freshman year was a bit disappointing. But this year, we're starting to see why.